Those religions that are oppressive to women are also against democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression.

Religion is against women's rights and women's freedom. In all societies women are oppressed by all religions.

I write against the religion because if women want to live like human beings, they will have to live outside the religion and Islamic law.

I don't find any difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalists. I believe religion is the root, and from the root fundamentalism grows as a poisonous stem. If we remove fundamentalism and keep religion, then one day or another fundamentalism will grow again. I need to say that because some liberals always defend Islam and blame fundamentalists for creating problems. But Islam itself oppresses women. Islam itself doesn't permit democracy and it violates human rights.

Koranic teaching still insists that the sun moves around the earth. How can we advance when they teach things like that?

Women are oppressed in the east, in the west, in the south, in the north. Women are oppressed inside, outside home, a woman is oppressed in religion, she is oppressed outside religion.

I have lectured at the U.N. and travelled widely, giving lectures on human rights and gender inequalities in universities. But this is a life I do not wish to live. I don't want to be a showcase, I want to be in a battlefield where I can stand beside the oppressed and the poor.